Tuesday, October 17, 2006

What's Polish for mulberry bush?

Poland has another government, temporarily. But as Marek Mazour, political analyst at Silesia University in Katowice says:

But it looks like chances are low the government will last long.

Can't have everything, I suppose. In fact, it is the same government that was broken up when

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the prime minister, expelled the leftist Self-Defence party from the coalition last month in a row over the budget, leaving him without a majority in parliament.

Then he called Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the Self-Defence Party - whether it is leftist is a moot point - "a rabble-rouser". Now he finds that the rabble-rouser and his party are needed in order to have a majority in the Sejm and to pass that budget.

So Lepper is back in his old position of agriculture minister and deputy prime minister. The third member of the coalition, the League of Polish Families is also back. What fun it all is. One wonders whether the Polish people are all that pleased with the rather peculiar route their country is taking in its journey "back to Europe".